When the Child Would Accommodate the Adult Again

When the child would accommodate the adult again:

When the city has sunk into the jaws of the day

And the dishes are drying in the rack;

When the night gathers itself to a whisper in the ear-

This is the most innocent hour of all;

When the girl, standing in her father's garden again,

Raises the flower of her dress

Toward the time when the bloom, with its sweeter promise,

Will be lifted toward the face;

When she stoops again to help a sparrow leaning on its wing.

The mother that becomes a child again

Raising flowers on a Sunday afternoon,

In this bright night world, among the silken sounds,

Becomes, as a child, the flower that she raised... .

The sun comes to lift the pollen from her eyes;

And while the day, bee-like, gathers for its banquet at her ear,

She listens to the street flowing with all that faded taste.